Friday

Relevant magazine writer Jesse Carey joined the debate about how Chip and Joanna Gaines make decisions concerning their family and business.

Relevant magazine writer Jesse Carey weighed in on the debate about how Chip and Joanna Gaines make decisions concerning their family and business.

Last week, USA Today columnist Daryl Austin wrote that the "Fixer Upper" couple doesn't necessarily put family first. Instead, he said, the Gaines have worked to build their careers.

“Unchecked ambition for any of us is a bottomless pit. We live in a world where every social media user compares his worst to everyone else's best, and mommy bloggers work tirelessly to portray unattainable perfect homes and families. Instead of correcting distorted realities, Chip and Joanna are adding to the problem,” Austin wrote.

Chip Gaines responded to the article on Twitter, saying that Austin doesn't necessarily know his family or how the Gaines' business operates.

“I don't know Daryl, (and) he clearly doesn't know me,” he tweeted about Austin. “But for the record: If there is ever a need (with) my family (first), I'll shut this circus down so fast it will make your head spin. But Jo (and) I believe, (with) God anything is possible. Including having an amazing family and career you love.”

Carey, an editor for the Christian-based magazine Relevant, has his own opinion about the Gaines family.

Chip Gaines, he said, is right.

According to Carey, Relevant interviewed Chip last year about how the “Fixer Upper” star has a work-life balance while also leading a highly religious life.

In response, Chip said, “Jo and I have chosen to focus on the reality that there's really no way to balance our work and our lives. They have to coexist; there's no way around it.”

He continued, “I truly believe that my family strengthens my ability to do the best I can in my career, and likewise my career strengthens my marriage and my ability to have a successful family. It's my faith that facilitates my ability to fire on all cylinders in my career and with my family. But Jo and I are sincere in our hearts when we say that if work and family ever did come into conflict with one another, we are completely committed to our marriage and our kids, and we'd be willing to let everything else go.”

In his column this week, Carey said that Chip Gaines had it right. It's not important to seek work-life balance, but rather find a way to incorporate your life into your work.

For Gaines, that means bringing his family into his work. That's why his children had frequent appearances on “Fixer Upper.”

“Despite what Austin says, Chip and Jo aren't adding to a problem,” Carey wrote. “They are offering a solution to one. Not everyone can launch a TV and real estate empire and run with it their families. But we can all seek to find ways to incorporate our families and faith into our work and passions so that our lives aren't about how good we are at keeping them segmented; they're about how we can keep them holistic.”